Arranging the music of one song...

Ladies and gentleman, Mr. Shariq Ansari and a group of talented ReMixers are pleased to bring you our latest site project, Rise of the Star: The Kirby's Adventure Remix Collaboration, the latest in a growing line of collaborative site projects, which most recently featured Sonic 2, the general idea being for a group of mixers to collectively cover a game's entire soundtrack. This time up Nintendo's fluffy, pink, transmogrifying alter-mascot Kirby takes the stage; DarkeSword elaborates:

"Rise of the Star is a collection of remixes from the classic platformer, Kirby's Adventure. With this project, we aimed to write character themes for each of the titles given to Kirby throughout the game. After nearly 10 months of work, the album has turned out to be quite a remarkable collection of remixes. We hope everyone enjoys our work."

You can check it out at kirby.ocremix.org or download the torrent sight unseen, but either way, you're in for some fluffy, pink nostalgia, with a good deal of stylistic variety to boot. The first mix in from the project posted here is Adhesive_Boy's Cosmic Transformations. The ReMixer writes:

"Kirby turns into some pretty awesome things. Remember how cool that UFO power up was, and how you could only get in like two levels? And then how you'd inevitably get hit and watch your star erratically bounce away and disappear, knowing you'd probably never get something that sweet again?

But then, a few seconds later, you'd transform into something almost as cool and realize that everything is good and has it's place in this little world of cosmic transformations. Because beneath the bouncy and saccharine world of Kirby there is a deep cosmic force waiting to wiggle its way out.

Enjoy the project."

I personally don't remember any of this, having never really gotten particularly into the Kirby universe; I think at the time I was hitting up Sonic CD and couldn't be bothered, but for a game released towards the very end of the NES's long and noble commercial lifespan, Kirby got a lot of (apparently deserved) attention. Adhesive_Boy's mix is an interesting landscape of texture, blending the happy-go-luckiness of the source material in with filtered drums, shimmering pads, some evocative, genuinely interesting chord progressions, brass, flute, angelic harp, playful xylophone, and an oompah synth bassline, all of which takes place in a shifting, uncertain universe of AB's own creation, where effects and panning are just as likely to be modulated as filter cutoff and resonance, and myriad motifs weave their way through one another. If Kirby had a smidge too much tequila, crashed, and proceeded to have a dream that was mostly fantasy but laced with pieces of nightmare, it might go something like this. It's disorienting at times, but very unique in how AB's been able to transplant the original into a new environment, sorta like taking a freshwater fish and tossing it into the Atlantic ocean and somehow keeping it not only alive, but healthy + replenished. The end result is odd, as per AB's usual, but also accessible and very transporting, and - albeit, speaking without much background - seems to fit the Kirby universe like a glove, given these two traits. Excellent, fresh stuff; be sure to check out the rest of the project for a consistently solid lineup of other tracks from KA, and a big congratulations to AB, Shariq, and the entire project team for pulling everything together and making our summers pink, adorable, and capable of inhaling sizable farm animals without breaking a sweat.

So I recently burned this to an OCR compilation for the car,
remembering how much I enjoyed "Adhesive Boy's" unique style.
Given your old handle, it was definitely a revelation to learn
you were female this whole time, but it's not so surprising given
the soft beauty that most of your work has

This track is one of my all time favorites from back in the day,
as I think it captures perfectly the whimsical nature of Kirby's
world.

A few months ago I played this for some old housemates of mine.
Midway through, the girlfriend of one of them turned to him and
half-whispered "this doesn't sound like anything I've ever
heard before." I think that's probably the best compliment I've
ever received.

That's why I love your music so much and why it's such an
inspiration for me to do the same with my own music It really is like nothing I've ever heard before.
If you have any more music beyond your posted remixes that you're
willing to share, send it my way!

I think my favorite thing about this song really is its pacing...
It's very patient. The pads are held in suspense in the intro...
The song takes the time to chill out a bit and let us fill in the
blanks... The builds are amazingly ethereal and really fit for a
Kirby song.

The drums are so beefily-distorted, and paired with the bass,
they really drive the song, which is otherwise long and flowing.
It's a contrast that works REALLY well.

The flute is so cute, it's plain, but it's written with a lot of
heart, and it really stands out as clear vs. a lot of heavily
distorted instruments. Again, really good contrast. The brass
also do this vs. the pads.

In other words, this song is a journey that I immensely enjoy,
it's the kind of music you can either listen to deliberately, or
can put in the background and chill out to.

It also really has an incredible amount of detail with the
soundscape, pulling back, and flowing back in. LIKE WATER. Bruce
Lee would be proud A+

This may have been my favorite track off the Kirby album. I love
the way it's produced, what with the harsh-sounding drums and
then the whimsical instruments that provide contrast. It makes me
imagine a silly Kirby in space, not knowing what to do, just
running around like crazy. Maybe that's not as cool as it sounds,
but it provides some pretty amusing imagery.

This is a great mix that manages to remain interesting throughout
the entire song. I don't think it's aged poorly at all. Good
stuff.

A few months ago I played this for some old housemates of mine.
Midway through, the girlfriend of one of them turned to him and
half-whispered "this doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard
before." I think that's probably the best compliment I've ever
received.

Man, that intro was weird as hell, especially with headphones on,
but I liked it. It's got a lot of whimsical feelings in it and it
just really fits Kirby's world. Love how much variety you put
into the ReMix to keep the attention going and still managing to
make it come off as a natural sounding song, like it was just
meant to be made this way. Brilliant ending as well. Amazing
ReMix!

This mix was one of my early favourites at a time where I was
young and let a LOT of music pass over me without caring. Pretty
sure it is impossible for this mix to pass over anyone.

This captures the universe of Kirby much better than the NES chip
ever could. The music simply explodes with colour and character,
bizarreness and sweetness. Fabulous use of transitions between
styles; always unique and always true to the concept of the
piece. It's crazy that with a mix this busy and constantly
weaving in and out of phases, it still manges to have a flowing
pace. Not to mention the amount of love and fun infused within
every second of the mix. It's not hard to hear that Kirby MEANT
something to Adhesive_Boy; it can't just be a simple melody he
liked and decided to remix.

really nice textural shifts in this one, anchored by that huge
bass sound. I think the drums are a bit much; the volume could
come down a bit on them and i'd like things better. Flute is
pretty unmodulated, but the pads and synths are classy. I liked
the pitched percussion as well, adding a nice texture and
lightheartedness to the otherwise badass beats. I wish the source
melody was a little more adventurous, as it seems kindof vanilla
(get it? ice cream reference). There's enough done to keep
interest for the track's duration though.

Not really grabbing me and demanding my attention, but well put
together.

Wow , this piece . It has everything to make it a great AB piece.
Very tight drumwork , trippy sounds and an excellent flow and
pacing. In my opinion this is one of the more overlooked pieces
from ROTS. I love the breakdown at 3:02. Very ambient and very
well done. It's like getting hit with a wall of sound falling
down and slowly getting back up (at 3:11)The bassline is also
very well done. It does a great job of getting things moving and
grooving. It's an acid trip of a mix. What more can be said? It's
a keeper.

So I finally played the game, and now I've managed to understand
the compositional beauty behind this This is a very interesting incorporation of
the Ice Cream Islands theme that has showed a very energetic and
spacious feel to the Lil Traveller theme, and something I can
associate with the world of powerups across the Kirby universe.

I did write a brief comment upon the project's release, and now
it's time I went full on here. Hope you don't mind?

---

Remix

From the moment the flute came in, I am familiarized greatly with
the source material, so that can say it has managed to fit as a
Kirby arrangement well enough. For most of its duration the
execution is very strong and well planned out; got a similar
grungy feel to Braving the Flames but I dig it. It can be argued
that some of the backing synths at 0:50 seemed a bit on the
dissonant side but that shouldn't be too much of a problem. There
is a heck of a lot of variation on the theme, and that has been
shown by changing the key on the second half of which as well as
a good amount of playing around with the rhythms second time
through. The structuring is also pretty interesting; while some
may feel to be a bit sudden, I feel that they have incorporated
the feel of the many "transformations" that Kirby has gone
through within the game, so I can associate with much of the
artistic visions as shown in this. In terms of standing alone,
this has to be one of the strongest mixes within the project
hands down, and it's for more than just the execution factor; a
great amount of creativity and pure heart being placed upon the
creation has easily aided to create a very interesting piece
overall.

Creativity

Much of the creativity - and in turn, most of the elements that
have breathed life into the song - are shown on the technical
emphasis behind most of the track sub-sections, and even here I
appreciate much of the change of moods shown throughout as well
as the change of progressions at 3:23; that added well enough to
emphasize on a climatic feel at its right time in the mix. The
segments link together fairly well here; some may argue that
there could be too much going on to make them transition well,
but myself I am fitting strongly on AB's artistic side being
expressed just as much as its presentation. The variety of moods
has also added to a lot of fresh pacing throughout, so it can be
said that no two areas sound the same. That in turn has also
affected much of the repetition factor; I can barely find any in
this piece whatsoever, and so it has been able to focus well
enough to entertain its audience. So given what has been shown in
this side of the contribution, I loved a great deal of what
managed to come through the adaptation, and can easily see it as
fitting for the Lil' Traveller title.

Production

Most of the samples are pretty impressive and fitting for what we
come to see with his work; I can't say I was too down with the
flute choice here, but there's still just as much interesting
sounds to help it blend in just fine. Even here the range of EQs
and processes are very brash and clear as well as aiding towards
the different types of ambience as shown throughout the piece, so
I can say it has stood well to make it fitting. Even the sound
levels are well rounded for an AB mix, so I can't sense much
wrong on that aspect. One thing that did rub me the wrong way
though was the panning; while there's some strong positioning
techniques going throughout the track, some of the techniques in
the opening and closing stages seemed to feel a little bit
uneasy. Going towards the opening I dig the pan shift techniques
upon the psychedelic pad FX in the background, adding to that
cosmic feel towards the arrangement, but it can be argued that
either the panning range should be a bit smaller to fit with the
sound balance or should be a bit faster to even it out. And as
for the closure, the ending music box was a cool thing to use
although I think it might have helped with some stereo ambience
to better add towards the feel of its current situation.
Nonetheless this is still mightily impressive stuff; not quite
seen as his best tech approach but it's definitely interesting,
and a great way to come back after his stellar contributions in
Relics of the Chozo and Kong in Concert.

---

The entire project has got some good stuff to listen to, and it's
good to see we have some established mixers on the scene coming
back to fill the spots out there. Choosing AB's mix as the first
single from is is a big step, and it works for creating a
variative and interesting feel towards its audience, especially
within the earlier half of the album. Any quirks some people
point out may be preferences, although for me they work to create
a very epic mix for the site to take in.

If there will be any more singles from the Kirby project, I'll be
glad. If there will be more mixes from AB, I'll also be glad.
Nonetheless, props to making this mix work out

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